F1 Online Open Beta is ready to play now... and it's a bit like Micro Machines

Codemasters' free-to-play F1 management sim has officially gone into Open Beta. Know what that means? The whole game is there for you to play until your heart's content. But don't worry about the 'management sim' bit - you do get to drive the cars around 3D tracks in real-time - it's just a bit different from the F1 racing you're used to from Codies.

The game runs in your browser, which means you just have to load up the internet on your PC or Mac, navigate to the game's website and then... well, play it. All 20 of this year's race tracks are in the game, using the same 3D models and data that full-fat F1 2011 does on your Xbox, PC or PS3. You'll also be racing with the official teams and drivers. It's fully-licensed, fully official and fully... similar to Codemasters' racing classic Micro Machines when you play it, surprisingly. More realistic, of course, but definitely comparable.

Observe:

Driving around can be done entirely with a two-buttoned mouse, although you can map the accelerate/brake controls to the keyboard. Steering with the mouse takes some getting used to (place the arrow in front of the car in the direction you want it to follow), but we managed a second place against the online masses after just a couple of races.

If the racing itself feels too fiddly, or you've got two left thumbs (so to speak) then you can go entirely managerial, creating your own team from scratch and then managing the development of the car.


It's all going to be free-to-play when it comes out of Beta, but it's all in there right now. You just might come across the odd bug or two. And if any Hamilton fans want to seek out the side of Maldonado's car on the penultimate lap... well, we won't say anything.



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Canon’s Micro Four Thirds Camera In The Next 30 Days

Canon’s mirrorless entry could be just around and just waiting its official curtain be lift off, though at the moment there are scant details about the camera. However, CanonRumors are getting more and more information about the announcement slated for sometime in the next 30 days, probably that will fall nearly on the rumored July 24th announcement.

The rumor also suggest that Canon’s micro four third entry will might be using same sized or maybe even the exact same sensor fitted on the G1 X.

Accordingly, there will be three lenses will go on debut, which might seemed to be a new mount. But we’re looking on the possibility that the camera will be or there’s a way to make it  compatible to existing EF or EF-S lenses.

Looking forward, there might be three class of mirrorless entry coming from Canon, with the initial announcement introducing the consumer level camera while the “prosumer” and “professional” inclined cameras are planned to come later.

For the meantime, we can take each pieces of these mirrorless with a grain of salt but expect the coming weeks throwing solid leaks if Canon will make its micro four third entry official.

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